Ambatbaaji in America - Part IV

San Jose / San Francisco

Pepu and Megha came to pick us up at the San Jose airport.  Their home is just 20 minutes from the airport.  Megha had hurt her little finger, and we started our sight-seeing the next morning a little late.

Two negatives make it positive, right?  To offset a start with an injured finger, we decided to make it to the Crooked Street in San Francisco first.   The streets of San Francisco are so cramped, steep and sudden that despite the lady constantly alerting us on the GPS, we lost way quite frequently and finally made it to the famous landmark.  I must say I have never seen anything so purposely made.  From there, we went to the Pier 39 area, parked our car, and started, again, the long walks of sight-seeing in the US.

   

The intention was to visit a warship there, but only on arrival did we find that the warship had been moved elsewhere.  So we had to contend with the other scenery and things available there.  A brief visit to the pier area, a distant view of the sea lions basking on the piers, the shopping areas, the swift and delicate art of preparing the desert crepes, the colourful paper kites and spinning wheels, a visit to the wax museum, a sweet visit to the Ghiradelli chocolate shop and some food there too, photograph with the beautiful tulips grown on the footpaths, a taste of bread-bowl soup at the famous Boudin bakery and back to car park, all in about four to five hours of walking amid colourful people, vintage and modern cars, fast sports cars such as Pepu’s Mustang and slow trams crisscrossing all through the roads.   Pepu and Megha did their best to not only entertain us, but also to show around the most important places in that area.

 

From the bay area, we left for a sunset view of the Golden Gate bridge.  The massive structure did impress me, but having caught a glimpse of better vista points along the curving roads up above the hills, I could not resist persuading Pepu to drive further up before nightfall, and he obliged with pleasure.  It was worth it.  The view I got not only of the bridge, but of the other side of the bay area, was lovely as you can see from the pictures below.   It was very cold out in the open, and even I was shivering as I took the pictures resting the camera on fence poles.  Still, quite a few came shaky. 

 

 

It was a long drive from the Golden Bridge to Fremont to Vasanthi’s cousin’s place, along the beautifully illuminated Bay Bridge and out.  We had food at the Saravana Bhavan in Fremont.  The food was so-so, but what I could not digest was the wash area was awash with scattered paper towels that made us wonder why the Indians behave so shabbily when they get a chance.  Dropping us at Fremont, Pepu and Megha left for their home back in San Jose.

more photos can be viewed at www.flickr.com/photos/raghu_ambattur/sets.